Kelowna Kripplers
More can be found at Kelowna Kripplers Official Website The Kelowna Kripplers (or simply the Kripplers) are the youngest team in the BDL. They were established during league expansion prior to Season 4. Unlike the other expansion team, the Fighting Pineapples, the Kripplers had not existed in any form prior to expansion. GM klozge started the team from scratch with the intention of being one of the most feared teams in the league. The Kripplers are using pictures of comic monsters in their signatures as part of their corporate identity. Their colors are black, blue and grey and they play in Divsion Blue. Their official newspaper is called "The Komplete Krippler" but also freelancers like "Kevin, the news guy" are covering the team. Team Founding The Kripplers first appeared during league expansion. In the expansion draft they selected the following four players: #barmishmar (2nd overall) #Rob_Avs33 (3rd overall) #Sethro109 (6th overall) #NayefJ (7th overall) They also added rookie free agents kid_line and Polishavsfan8 to complete their Season 4 roster. Rob_Avs33 was awarded with the Captaincy of the team while barmishmar was made the Alternate Captain. Both were veterans with very good individual stats. NayefJ went into Season 4 as his sophomore season. He was awarded with the Calder Trophy as the Rookie Of Season 3. Sethro109, kid_line and Polishavsfan8 started Season 4 as rookies. Season 4 Just when Season 4 had started the Kripplers added Drizzt1, another newcomer, to their lineup. They also made kid_line who got the first contract extension in the history of the team their new Assistant GM. The season saw them beating the Brampton Beeters impressively in the first game and climbing right onto 1st place in the league. However, they lost the next two games ("Expansion Clash 1" against the Fighting Pineapples and the first match vs the Mongooses) and slipped down to 5th place in the league, 2nd in their division. In a reaction to those struggles klozge decided to change the whole coaching staff. The new coaches started to work on Sunday, 10.31.2010 - one day before the 4th week of the Season. This move paid off instantly as the team managed to get the highest score in that very week (unfortunately just like the team they faced: perfect tie against the Pucktards) and to become the first Division Blue team to beat a team of Division Burgundy (The Internationals) in week 5 which let them move back to the top position of their division. Against the Internationals they also set the records for most goals scored in one week (98) for that season. The record was broken one week later by the Pineapples who beat the Kripplers in the 2nd Expansion Clash. One week and another loss (again against the Mongooses) later the new head coach was already replaced by a formerly unknown individuum called "The General". Driven by the iron hand of the new coach the team stormed out of the gates and seemed to beat division rival Pucktards easily, only to lose a lead of more than 20 goals within 2 days and to find themselves tied for the last place of the league after week 8. Nevertheless, Drizzt1 was awarded with the DGSIAB BDL Player Of The Week Awarded for a bold but dominant pick which happened to be a benched one, unfortunately. Also in that week the fanzine of the team - "The Komplete Krippler" - appeared for the first time. Entering week 9 which saw them beat division rival Brampton Beeters for the 2nd time of the season the team presented the jerseys for Season 5 and announced the signing of rookie ilianna who would join the team at the beginning of the new season. They started the final quarter of the season back in the lead of Division Blue and facing the Pucktards for the third and final time. The league announced that the cap would increase in the following season and the Kripplers used the additional cap to sign free agent Mazzie who would join the team at the beginning of Season 5 along with ilianna. After beating the Pucktards they only needed to win one of the final two games of the season to win the division and advance to the finals but an impressive run of the Beeters and two losses spoiled the success. However, they managed to end the regular season as the highest scoring team in the league. Season 5 The Kripplers stormed out of the gates in impressive fashion, beat the Beeters by 20 goals and got themselves the 1st place in the league. Rookie Mazzie was awarded with the DGSIAB BDL Award as the Player Of Week 1. They went on to have the best first half of the season of all teams in the league despite having some troubles to score as well as they did in season 4. At one point, though, everything changed. GM klozge was forced by private problems and a lot of fights with other GMs to take a break. Kidline took over as the General Manager, made NayefJ the new assistant GM and the team continued to be successful at first. Everything looked well and even klozge returned after two weeks but the problems to score became more evident in each week. And suddenly the Kripplers weren't able to win anymore. They didn't win a single game after the NHL trade deadline (except the very last one in which they completed the sweep against the Mongooses) and lost the division lead to the Beeters. There still were positive aspects, though. Kidline signed free agent wolski, captain Rob_Avs who had been very busy in his private life found the time to become more vocal and to become the leader the team had needed, the Kripplers became recogniced by real residents of Kelowna and British Columbia and NayefJ was selected to represent the team in the first BDL All Star Game. Also, they emerged as the better one of the two expansion teams (sweeping the Pineapples) and saw Polishavsfan8 and Sethro109 becoming top BDL players in their sophomore seasons. Current Roster GM = General Manager. C = Captain. A = Assistant Captain. Past Players Rob_Avs33 - Seasons 4 to 6. First Kelowna Kripplers captain Polishavsfan8 - Seasons 4 to 6 barmishmar - Seasons 4 to 5 Awards And Achievements Other Information *The Kripplers backstory is that they were a farm team for the Mongooses before being promoted to the BDL. *The Kripplers are based out of Kelowna, a small town in British Columbia, Canada. *The Kripplers also have an alternate logo which they're using in some of their signatures and (sometimes modified) for their jersey. It includes the letters "KK" for Kelowna Kripplers and "S4" for Season 4 as the birth date of the team. *They play their games in The Cave, an underground arena going by the official name of Microm Machining Underground Center.